A new report paints what Washington County housing officials say is an extremely troubling picture of discriminatory practices in the area's rental housing market.

The report, while based on too few incidents to constitute anything statistically valid, still reveals a consistently biased pattern facing renters when race, national origin and disability are involved, the officials say.

"These results are very egregious," said Jennie Proctor, program manager for the county's Office of Community Development. "They are alarming and disappointing, to say the least."

Proctor's office contracted with the Fair Housing Council of Oregon to conduct 20 so-called audit tests that produced the results. This marked the first time that audit testing has been used in Washington County.

The information will help guide the county as it develops a new Fair Housing Plan, which is aimed at identifying impediments to housing choice and presenting solutions to address those obstacles.

A citizen advisory committee is also studying the information, along with data gleaned from a number of other sources. The committee's ultimate recommendations, along with ideas from Proctor's office, will be presented to the county's Board of Commissioners for review and approval next spring.

The audit tests, conducted between March and June, involved sending two testers assigned similar backgrounds to seek rental housing from the same source, based on the same advertisement. The only difference between the testers was that one was a member of a "protected class" -- someone who can't, according to both state and federal law, be discriminated against on the basis of race, national origin and disability, among other things -- and the other was not.

Reports of their respective visits -- written separately, since the two testers never met and had no idea what specifically was being tested -- show stark differences in how the testers were treated by landlords.

One rental agent, for instance, told the non-protected renter she would "bump" him to the top of the waiting list. The protected tester, however, was informed he would be called only after others already on the list.

Another agent told the protected renter that a particular unit was no longer available, while informing the non-protected renter two days later that it was.

Washington County Commissioner Roy Rogers called the results of the new audit tests "deplorable," but said he still wants to see more information before making any final determination on how widespread the problem may be.

"At this point, what has our involvement been other than taking a statistically invalid sample?" Rogers said. "It's not clear to me yet just how useful this really is."

Still, results of the tests mirror those conducted elsewhere around the metro area, where instances of discrimination in housing are rising, said Moloy Good, the Fair Housing Council of Oregon's executive director.

"We've always said this is just a snapshot and it's not meant to be a thoroughly statistical analysis in any particular area," he said. "But based on direct complaints we get from prospective renters, we know there are issues out there. These tests confirm that for us."

In recent tests conducted in Portland involving national origin, for example, rental agents showed discriminatory behavior in 17 of 19 instances. Tests focused on race turned up instances of discrimination in 14 of 25 cases.

The Washington County testing did not involve properties inside the city of Beaverton, because the city oversees its own fair-housing program. But the city and county are working together on the larger program update and are on track to adopt identically revised guidelines next spring.

In both 2009 and 2010, Beaverton contracted with the Fair Housing Council of Oregon for its own audit testing, said Andrea Nelson, the city's community development block grant project coordinator.

"The results, especially in 2009, were shocking," she said. "We knew we had a lot of work to do."

She credited an extensive outreach and education program with last year's improved testing results.

"What this all boils down to," Nelson said, "is that everyone is entitled to the safe, quality housing that they can afford."

Updating and enforcing a fair-housing plan is a mandatory, since both Beaverton and Washington County accept federal housing funds. A critical element tied to receiving those funds is the promise to implement fair-housing guidelines.

"Everything we do is complaint-driven," said Bob Estabrook, the bureau's spokesman. "Since we know that most instances of discrimination in housing are never reported, it's really important for people to know they need to contact us if they feel they've been a victim of this type of behavior."